Microsoft came out with a preview of new interesting product, Live Mesh

What is Live Mesh?

Live Mesh is a “software-plus-services” platform and experience that enables PCs and other devices to “come alive” by making them aware of each other through the Internet, enabling individuals and organizations to manage, access, and share their files and applications seamlessly on the Web and across their world of devices. Live Mesh includes:

§ A platform that defines and models a user’s digital relationships between devices, data, applications, and people—made available to developers through an open data model and protocols.

§ A cloud service providing an implementation of the platform hosted in Microsoft data centers.

§ Software, a client implementation of the platform that enables local applications to run offline and interact seamlessly with the cloud.

§ A platform experience that exposes the key benefits of the platform for bringing together a user’s devices, files and applications, and social graph, with news feeds across all of these.

What differentiates Live Mesh is its underlying platform. As a platform company, Microsoft believes in the power of the operating environment—and that if that environment is built correctly, the entire ecosystem will benefit. Live Mesh is built on the Live Services Platform, providing a Web-centric Mesh Operating Environment that evolves the user experience from one of “My Computer” to one of “My Mesh,” with the user at the center of that experience.

While many existing offerings may appear similar in that they utilize hosted services for storage, sharing files, or peer-to-peer connections between PCs, most of those products fulfill only one specific need. Live Mesh is unique in that it takes a more robust approach, bringing together all of this functionality in one offering. By weaving together the best of software and Internet services, Live Mesh delivers a platform and experience that is comprehensive yet simple and open.

Further Information

Live Mesh Official Site

Live Mesh Blog

Live Mesh Review by Liveside

Situation

Microsoft IT knows that unanticipated downtime can have a significant negative impact. Loss of critical systems or services can reduce productivity, sales, and confidence from staff, partners, and customers.

Solution

Microsoft IT deployed the Server Core installation option of Windows Server 2008 where it needed a server to be dedicated solely to the roles and features that a Server Core installation supports.

Read the whole case study here:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc500983.aspx

LAS VEGAS — April 17, 2008— At RFID Journal LIVE! 2008, Microsoft Corp. today unveiled Microsoft BizTalk RFID Mobile — a lightweight platform for a variety of mobile devices, which simplifies the development of mobile applications that expose relevant, real-time business information. BizTalk RFID Mobile enables delivery of relevant information from mobile devices to core business processes for a variety of scenarios, whether for a dock worker verifying a shipment or a pharmacist verifying that the right medicine has been stocked.

Microsoft today made available a private beta with general availability expected in late 2008. Customers and partners can participate in the BizTalk RFID Mobile Technology Adoption Program (TAP) by registering at https://connect.microsoft.com/site/sitehome.aspx?S...eID=65.

“Given today’s fast-paced environment, customers have asked for business process technologies that enable real-time decision-making to help drive measurable business results,” said Burley Kawasaki, director of product management in the Connected Systems Division at Microsoft. “Together, with leading industry partners including Motorola Inc., Intermec Technologies Corp., Unitech, Samsung and Psion Teklogix Inc., we will deliver a cost-effective, mobile RFID platform that works with existing business processes and systems.”

As part of the Microsoft BizTalk product line, Microsoft BizTalk RFID Mobile underscores the company’s long-term commitment to deliver extensive service-oriented architecture (SOA) and business process management (BPM) capabilities as part of the overall Microsoft application platform. The platform is a set of compatible, mission-critical technologies and development tools that enable customers to develop applications that work with existing systems.

“BizTalk RFID Mobile represents an exciting opportunity for Motorola to build on our track record of delivering innovative products to meet customer needs,” said Joe White, vice president of RFID business development for Motorola Enterprise Mobility. “Motorola is actively working with Microsoft so that our customers will be able to reliably and seamlessly run applications on BizTalk RFID Mobile.”

Microsoft BizTalk RFID Mobile when used with BizTalk Server 2006 R2 enables real-time decisions by extending business process to Windows CE and Windows Mobile 5.0 applications. BizTalk Server 2006 R2, Microsoft’s core SOA and BPM technology, which was generally available in September 2007, included advancements for fixed RFID readers including device management, data filtering and business rules, electronic data interchange (EDI), and interoperability with line-of-business adapters for manufacturing, finance and healthcare.

“It’s only natural that Microsoft extends BizTalk RFID out to mobile devices, and it complements its mobile hardware partners’ very well,” said John Fontanella, vice president of Research at AMR Research Inc. “The ability to operate at the edge in real time opens up opportunities that can only further enhance RFID’s value.”

Today, Microsoft also announced the BizTalk RFID Standards Pack, for customers to seamlessly integrate their RFID solutions with Electronic Product Code (EPC) global ratified standards, including Tag Data Translator (TDT) and Low Level Reader Protocol (LLRP) standards.

SAN FRANCISCO, April 7, 2008 - HP today strengthened its security portfolio, HP Secure Advantage, with the introduction of several products that increase data protection and compliance in storage environments.

New to the portfolio are a secure fabric switch; an encryption kit for tape autoloaders and libraries; integration of compliance and key management appliances; and, an online security assessment tool.

These offerings provide customers with a holistic approach to data security, from evaluating existing security strategies to identifying and combating potential security threats. As a result, companies can reduce the risk of security breaches, achieve regulatory compliance and safeguard against lost intellectual property, revenue or corporate reputation.

“Companies of all sizes are grappling with how to handle increased business risks associated with data center sprawl, network attacks and new regulatory pressures,” said Jon Oltsik, senior analyst of Information Security at analyst firm Enterprise Strategy Group. “The breadth of HP’s Secure Advantage portfolio, combined with its services strength, addresses evolving challenges with security and compliance.”

In a recent survey of technology security professionals, respondents cited data protection as their No. 1 priority for 2008. The survey revealed that the number of company records exposed due to security breaches increased threefold in 2007 over the previous year.⁽¹⁾

HP has been protecting the majority of the world’s financial transactions for the past 35 years, safeguarding ATM, point-of-sale networks, credit card information and electronic funds transfers. HP Secure Advantage bolsters this effort by delivering a portfolio of servers, storage, software and services that provides customers with integrated security solutions – from the desktop to the data center.

Data protection and compliance in storage environments

HP added new storage encryption, key management and compliance capabilities to its Secure Advantage portfolio, including:

• The HP C-Series MDS 9000 Storage Media Encryption (SME) fabric switch secures data stored on tape drives and virtual tape libraries in a storage area network environment. The SME feature is designed to run on the MDS 9000 family, offering encryption and key management functionality for legacy tape devices to ensure maximum protection of existing product investments.
• The HP StorageWorks 1/8 G2 & MSL LTO-4 Encryption Kit offers small to midsize businesses data encryption capabilities. This easy-to-install encryption accessory kit is designed specifically for the HP 1/8 G2 Tape Autoloader and MSL Tape Libraries with LTO-4 tape technology. It generates and retains encryption keys so critical business information remains private in the event that tapes are lost or stolen.
• HP has integrated the HP StorageWorks Secure Key Manager with the HP Compliance Log Warehouse to deliver a comprehensive compliance validation solution for LTO-4 enterprise tape libraries. The combined solution provides a secure audit trail through features that centralize event log collection and long-term retention. The HP Compliance Log Warehouse also collects the business intelligence needed to generate regulatory reports for forensic investigations with a single click of the mouse.
• The HP Storage Security Assessment tool, available on the HP website, enables customers to gauge their most critical storage privacy vulnerabilities online and free of charge. Customers answer a series of questions and receive a personalized report to better manage risk, protect sensitive data and comply with data privacy regulations. This tool was developed by the HP Consulting & Integration Security and Risk Management Practice.

Information about additional new solutions and services that bolster the HP Secure Advantage portfolio is available at www.hp.com/go/secureadvantageadvisory.

Pricing and availability⁽²⁾

The MDS 9222i switch combined with the SME License to Use (LTU) is now available with a U.S. list price of $83,500.

The HP StorageWorks 1/8 G2 & MSL 2024/4048/8096 LTO-4 Encryption Kit is expected to be available in June with a U.S. list price of $2,500.

The Secure Key Manager cluster has a U.S. list price of $100,000 and the Compliance Log Warehouse has a U.S. list price that starts under $125,000. Both are currently available.

Littleton, Mass. — March 24, 2008 — Marathon Technologies Corporation announced everRun VM, the world’s first fault-tolerant, high availability software for server virtualization. Based on the same everRun® automated availability software employed by over 1800 organizations, everRun VM prevents outages and data loss in Citrix XenServer virtual infrastructures. The significance of this new software for the IT industry is threefold:

1. Companies can now reliably run high value production applications in virtual machines, gaining the benefits of virtualization across a much broader range of applications
2. It will now be practical to make high availability and DR a standard part of the IT infrastructure for midsize and larger companies
3. A key component is in place to accelerate the next wave of server virtualization adoption

Enabling Virtualization of Production Applications 

To date, companies that have deployed virtualization have not migrated many of their highest value, business critical applications to virtual servers. This is due to a variety of reasons, primarily performance concerns and a lack of true high availability. everRun VM delivers reliable protection for virtual workloads by providing redundant virtual machines and synchronized mirroring of the whole system. The integration of XenServer’s superior “bare-metal” performance and everRun VM’s unique architecture gives IT professionals the confidence to virtualize business critical and other production applications. “Marathon has a superb software product that is seamlessly integrated with XenServer. The combination allows companies to virtualize a range of applications that they wouldn’t even consider previously,” said Peter Levine, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Citrix Virtualization and Management Division. 

Making Availability Mainstream 

Availability solutions have remained a niche application because they are complex and expensive. Through tight integration with Citrix XenServer, everRun VM breaks through the availability bottleneck by providing:

• Completely Automated VM Availability - everRun VM automates VM availability setup and configuration - usually deployed in thirty minutes or less. It also automates fault and policy management – it literally maintains itself.
• Flexibility to Dial-in Availability by Virtual Machine – everRun VM lets IT administrators select the availability protection for each virtual machine (VM) so they can match the right availability level for each application running in a VM. The end result – optimal availability price/performance because companies only pay for the protection they need.
• Application Independence – everRun VM supports all Windows applications without any modifications.

everRun VM removes the burden of availability for IT professionals and makes automated HA and DR practical for midsized companies. 

“Based on our research, high availability solutions, including clustering software and proprietary hardware, have never exceeded 20 percent deployment rates,” said John Humphreys, Program Vice President, Virtualization Software for IDC. “The reason: they are too complex to setup and too complex to manage. The combination of easy to use virtualization and availability software could bring availability to the masses.” 

Accelerating Adoption of Server Virtualization 

According to industry analysts, server virtualization has achieved a less than 10 percent deployment rate on x86 servers to date. everRun VM can help accelerate the adoption of server virtualization by allowing:

• Enterprises to deploy virtualization across a much broader range of applications
• Midsize companies to use virtualization as a tool for automated availability and DR

“everRun VM presents a dramatically more reliable approach to virtual server availability through selectable, automated, FT-class availability,” said Gary Phillips, president and CEO of Marathon Technologies.  everRun VM is the first in a line of virtualization availability and DR products from Marathon that are so simple, transparent and cost-effective that every application can be protected.” 

everRun VM is currently in beta. General availability is scheduled for April. 

About Marathon Technologies
With over 1800 global customers, Marathon is the world’s first and only provider of fault-tolerant, automated, high availability and disaster recovery software for physical and virtual servers. Marathon’s everRun® software prevents outages and data loss – without IT intervention. Organizations using everRun achieve uninterrupted availability, 100% data protection, and rapid recovery – all through “one-click” operation. The company won a “Best of VMworld 2007 – New Technology” award for bringing fault tolerant availability to virtual servers. CIO.com recently named Marathon Technologies one of “10 Virtualization Vendors to Watch in 2008.” For more information visit www.marathontechnologies.com

NetworkWorld published a list of the 20 most useful Microsoft sites for IT professionals.

WindowsNetworking.com is rated as number one!!! MSExchange.org and ISAServer.org are also included in the list reaching number 2 and 6 respectively.

It is great to receive this rating from such respected resource as NetworkWorld. The TechGenix team is happy to appear on this list of useful sites and will continue to provide fantastic content for our visitors.

HANOVER, Germany-March 4, 2008-Seagate Technology (NYSE:STX) announced it will begin shipping its new Cheetah® 15K.6 hard drive this month. Designed for the world’s most demanding enterprise storage environments, the Cheetah 15K.6 drive is Seagate’s highest-performance hard drive ever in a 3.5-inch form factor, with a 28% increase in sustained data transfer rates compared to previous generations. With this new performance on tap, the Cheetah 15K.6 drive remarkably consumes significantly less power, using up to 61% less watts/GB at idle.

Major OEM system builders, including HP, are working to design in the new Cheetah series hard drive, equipped with its leading Fibre Channel interface for HP’s SAN storage systems. “HP’s Enterprise Virtual Array (EVA), incorporating Seagate’s latest Cheetah 15K.6 drive will fulfill the needs of our most demanding customers running mission-critical business applications,” said Kyle Fitze, director of Storage Works SAN Marketing, at HP. “The improvements in performance, reliability, power savings, and capacity will collectively help enable our own EVA systems to deliver greater overall value to our customers.”

The Cheetah 15K.6 drive also ships in Serial Attached SCSI (SAS), which has become the mainstream enterprise interface of choice for companies including Super Micro Computer, Inc. (NASDAQ: SMCI). “Many of our customers require top-of-the-line performance and system efficiency,” said Charles Liang, CEO and president of Supermicro. “Integrating Seagate’s Cheetah 15K.6 drive into our 85%+ high-efficiency, earth-friendly SuperServers™ and Server Building Block Solutions® delivers not only superior performance, but also power savings, scalability and significantly reduced TCO.”

About the Cheetah 15K.6 drives
Using second-generation perpendicular recording technology and available in capacities of 450GB, 300GB, and 147GB, the new Cheetah 15K.6 drive provides an unprecedented blend of storage capacity and performance. Add to this the highest 3.5-inch hard drive reliability in the industry at 1.6 million hours MTBF (0.55% AFR), a choice of Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) or Fibre Channel (FC) interfaces, and a 5-year warranty, and the Cheetah 15K.6 drive becomes the clear drive of choice for 3.5-inch SAN, NAS, and other transactional processing and internet applications.

The Cheetah 15K.6 drive includes Seagate PowerTrim™ technology which dynamically optimizes drive power consumption at all levels of activity. With PowerTrim™ technology, the Cheetah 15K.6 drive delivers the highest performance in its class without increasing power consumption. The Cheetah 15K.6 drive lowers idle and operational power requirements from its prior generation - as much as 61% in watts/GB at idle - while increasing overall sustained data transfer rates by 28% at 164MB/sec.

For more information about Seagate’s Cheetah family of products, visit www.seagate.com.

Microsoft announced availability of Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1. This version is primarily for web developers to test new technologies available in IE8. Also it is great to check your existing sites against IE8 new rendering engine. However, nothing stops anybody from testing new IE.

There are versions available for Microsoft Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1), Windows Vista, Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2), Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server
2003 Service Pack 2 (SP2).

You can select your version on this page: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamil...ll.htm

More on new features here: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamil...es.htm

Office 2003 SP3 has been available interactively on MU for many months now, but, as you may remember from our post last month, today marks the beginning of automatic distribution to MU users.

We’ve heard great feedback from customers who’ve already installed SP3, and feel confident in distributing it to the many users who rely on MU to keep their PCs secure, reliable, and up-to-date. Note: The automatic distribution process will be gradual, so some users may see it install today, and for others, it may take a little longer.

If you’d like more info on Office 2003 SP3, check out the Download Information and KB articles on Office 2003 SP3 or the Office 2003 SP3 Whitepaper.

Thanks!

The Office & MU Teams

Source: Microsoft Update Product Team Blog

LOS ANGELES — Feb. 27, 2008 — Kicking off more than 225 events around the world and joined by more than 4,000 customers and partners, Microsoft Corp.’s Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer today showcased the next generation of infrastructure and application platform products, including Windows Server 2008, Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 and Microsoft SQL Server 2008.

The launch represents a major milestone to help customers on the road to Dynamic IT, Microsoft’s initiative to help customers optimize their people, processes and technology, and in turn position IT as a strategic asset for their business. These new enterprise products help customers more efficiently and securely manage their entire infrastructure and move to a virtualized environment while also delivering business intelligence and next-generation Web experiences to boost business results. The theme of the events, “Heroes Happen Here,” highlights the outstanding work that IT professionals, developers and partners do every day to create solutions and cutting-edge applications that keep global commerce and industry running.

“IT professionals and developers tell us they spend too much time and money managing existing systems and not enough investing in new capabilities that create strategic advantage,” Ballmer said. “That feedback is at the core of the innovations in this new wave of products. Already, the overwhelming response from thousands of IT professionals and developers around the world is that this is the most secure enterprise platform we have ever delivered, and that it will simplify management and enable them to focus more on driving their businesses forward.”

Big Benefits for Early Adopters

Researchers at consulting agency Capgemini looked at companies and institutions in the financial services, education, retail and high-technology industries using Windows Server 2008 in a mix of geographic regions. They found that the new operating system quickly adds value to IT operations through enhancements to management, security and reliability. On average, deployment duration was reduced by up to 60 percent and IT reduced costs by up to $124,000 per year. Cost reductions resulted from a wide range of areas, including the recovery of five IT staff hours per server and 91 percent less downtime. A white paper detailing usage scenarios and providing more data on the impact of deploying Windows Server 2008 is available at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/p...n.aspx.

Already IT professionals and developers around the world are using Windows Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008 and test versions of SQL Server 2008 to implement more secure platforms and Web applications while reducing costs and speeding development.

With the introduction of Windows Server 2008, leading global communications provider Verizon Business will deliver this next-generation platform to its managed hosting customers worldwide, enabling them to achieve greater reliability, performance and control over their IT infrastructure. In addition, Microsoft’s advanced Windows Deployment Services suite will allow Verizon Business to increase the speed of deployments and simplify management.

“This next-generation technology means a great deal to our enterprise customers,” said Michael Marcellin, vice president of product marketing at Verizon Business. “Through our long-standing relationship with Microsoft and as an early adopter of this technology, we are poised to continue to deliver innovative solutions to customers around the globe that will help them harness the power of the Internet.”

Go Daddy, the largest paid, shared Web hosting provider in North America, with 27 million domain names under management, is incorporating the new Windows Server 2008 with Internet Information Services 7.0 (IIS7) software into its Windows hosting product line. In its testing, Go Daddy has seen a 300 percent to 400 percent increase in server performance using the new technology. The performance gains will allow Go Daddy to run a more efficient and effective service for its shared hosting customers.

“We are excited to offer this technology to our customers,” said Bob Parsons, CEO and founder of Go Daddy. “With more than 5 million customers around the globe, Go Daddy prides itself on using cutting-edge technology that will help enhance Web site performance and provide our customers with a solid foundation for their IT needs.”

At Fidelity National Real Estate Solutions, the combination of Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008 enabled the creation of a cutting-edge Web site that provides near-instant access to real estate and neighborhood information about listings for sale, home values, schools and much more. The site operates significantly faster than was previously possible and was developed at a much lower cost.

“Not only is the new Web site visually cool — serving up customized content, 3-D aerial views and animations 10 times faster than was possible with older technologies — but it also was created for approximately $1.4 million less than it would have cost using other development tools,” said Marty Frame, senior vice president and general manager, Cyberhomes, Fidelity National Real Estate Solutions. “And, most important, visitors spend an average of 30 minutes on the site per visit, four times the typical average for competitors’ sites.”

These companies are just a sampling of the more than 3 million customers that participated in early feedback programs or as beta testers during product development.

The performance improvements and enterprise-class features of SQL Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 have resulted in record-breaking results. Today Microsoft disclosed new world-record performance results on TPC-E and SAP Sales and Distribution (SD) Standard Application 3-tier benchmarks running on four-socket industry-standard blade servers.** Microsoft also published breakthrough performance benchmarks for several customer scenarios, including leading results on Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Microsoft Dynamics AX, Siemens Teamcenter and Camstar Manufacturing Execution Systems.

Microsoft also announced that Microsoft Windows Server 2008 with .NET Framework 3.5 delivers faster throughput than IBM WebSphere 6.1 on Red Hat Linux as shown through two new benchmark tests measuring scalability and performance in mission-critical enterprise scenarios. The sample application shows 117 percent better throughput of Windows Server using the IBM-designed Trade 6.1 benchmark; and Sun Microsystems’ WSTest Web services benchmark demonstrates 94 percent better throughput on Windows Server when processing Web Service requests. More information on the results is available at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/events/HHHlaunc...FS.doc.

Partners See Opportunity

Microsoft has worked with more than 1,000 industry partners to help plan, build, test and deploy leading-edge solutions by providing early access to code, training and testing, and certification support. Hundreds of independent software vendors have demonstrated their support with the development of a wide variety of business applications for industries that include retail, accounting, commerce, engineering, financial services, healthcare, supply chain and more. In a related announcement, Microsoft detailed extensive investments in programs and tools for software and hardware partners. More information on the announcement is available at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2008/feb0...R.mspx. A full list of vendors offering applications certified for Windows Server 2008 or pledging to provide support for their applications on Windows Server 2008 can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/events/hhhlaunc...FS.doc.

Further demonstrating support for the new products, more than 40 companies are making announcements today and more than 80 partners are participating in launch events around the world, including platinum sponsors Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD), CA, Cisco Systems Inc., Citrix Systems Inc., Dell Inc., Fujitsu, Hitachi, HP, Intel Corporation, Quest Software Inc., SAP AG and Unisys Corp. Highlighting the opportunity for industry partners, a 2007 IDC study* predicts that for every $1 Microsoft earns from Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 this year in the U.S., the ecosystem beyond Microsoft — software and hardware vendors that support or incorporate the products — will reap about $18 in revenue. In 2008, this ecosystem is predicted to sell more than $120 billion in products and services revolving around Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.

Product Availability and Information

Windows Server 2008, including a beta version of the Hyper-V virtualization technology, and Visual Studio 2008 are available today. The feature-complete, February community technology preview of SQL Server 2008 is also available, with general availability expected in the third quarter of 2008.

Later this year Microsoft will release the Windows Essential Server Solutions family of products for small and midsize companies built on Windows Server 2008 and the newest Microsoft server technologies and services: Windows Small Business Server 2008 and Windows Essential Business Server 2008. Windows HPC Server 2008, the successor to Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003, is on track for availability in the second half of 2008 and is designed to increase productivity, scalability and manageability for high-performance computing scenarios. In addition, Windows Storage Server 2008, the next-generation storage solution based on Windows Server 2008, will be available by the end of the year.

Additional information on the launch of Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008 is available in the virtual pressroom at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/events/HHHlaunc...t.mspx.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

* IDC white paper sponsored by Microsoft, “The Economic Impact of Microsoft’s Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 in the U.S.,” Doc. 5052007, May 2007.

** Certification Number 2008003: SAP SD standard SAP ERP 6.0 (2005) application benchmark in 3-Tier configuration certified on 02/26/08 with Number of benchmark users & comp.: 34,000 SD (Sales & Distribution) with an average dialog response time: 1.99 seconds running Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Edition (64-Bit) and SQL Server 2008 (64-bit) on RDBMS database server. Hardware configuration of RDBMS server: HP ProLiant BL680c G5, 4 socket/16 core/16 thread Quad-Core Intel Xeon E7340 / 2.40GHz, 64GB RAM. For more details, see http://www.sap.com/benchmark.